Do you look forward to New Year's Eve? I do - quite a lot in fact. New Years is that one night a year where you forget about your budget, your health or how you will feel the next day/week/month. Now in clubbing circles this mean buying as many drugs (usually - I'd prefer not to stoop to stereotyping the entire scene) scouring the street press for months in advance looking for the perfect event to attend, and then partying until Janurary 3rd.

Sounds fine to you? Sounds great to me - but herein lies the problem. Promoters know that people want events to attend, and people will attend no matter what the cost - and the promoters know this also. So, what happen? Up go the ticket prices. Way up. Run any event of the same magnitiude at any other time of the year and you'd except to pay half of what you do for New Year's Eve. The best trend in the last couple of years is the sliding price scale. Promoters release tickets in batches with each successive batch the price going up. Looking at the current round of advertisments for this New Years show me the cheapest price so far for an event I'd like to attend is AU$50 - most are sitting around AU$100. And thats only for the first release of tickets.

For example
Mobile Home
Where: Bondi Pavilion
When: New Year's Eve
Who: Eric Morillo, Darren Emerson, Dimitri From Paris + 10 local supports
How Much: Now, AU$99 + booking fee (around AU$5), second release AU$120 + booking fee, third release AU$135 + booking fee.

Ow - thats gotta hurt if you aren't very organised!

Now compared this to the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System Tour happening on the 1st of December
Where: Sydney Showgrounds
Who: De La Soul, Masters At Work, Green Velvet, Tall Paul, Roni Size And MC Dynamite, Hybrid, LTJ Bukem, plus many more than I don't want to type totalling 78 different acts.
How Much: $99 - thats all.

I wonder how much this would cost if it was run on New Years Eve - any takers? I don't want to even imagine!

Of course, this trend is only getting worse - the whole sliding price scale started last year with Mobile Home, and now this year everyone is doing it. So, what can we do about it? I'm not really sure about this - its quite a nice Catch-22. I want to see international DJs but I don't want to pay, but I have to if I want to see them. The best solution I think is what I think I am going to do - screw the internations, the local talent is just as good. Get out this New Years and see your favourite local acts. They will really appreciate you support. And on top of that it's in my favourite nightclub of all time (Home, Sydney), being put on by my favourite club night (Sublime) and it will only cost me AU$50. Can't see a down side - can you?

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